Alex Proyas took a massive gamble. When Gods of Egypt hit theaters in 2016, it didn't just walk into a room; it kicked the door down and then tripped over the rug. People were confused. Critics were, honestly, pretty brutal. But if you look past the shimmering gold blood and the CGI that felt a bit like a fever dream, the Gods of Egypt movie characters represent a really weird, specific moment in big-budget filmmaking where mythology met sci-fi superhero aesthetics.
It’s a strange movie.
One minute you’re watching a mortal thief named Bek jump across rooftops like he’s in Aladdin, and the next, a twelve-foot-tall Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is turning into a metallic hawk. The scale is the first thing that hits you. The gods aren't human-sized. They tower over mortals, which is a neat nod to ancient Egyptian art where importance was shown through literal physical height. But man, does it make the eye lines in those scenes look difficult to film.
Horus and the Classic Hero's Journey (With More Gold)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays Horus. You probably know him as Jaime Lannister, and he brings a similar "arrogant prince needs a reality check" energy here. At the start, Horus is a spoiled brat. He’s about to be crowned King of Egypt, inheriting the throne from his father, Osiris. Then his uncle Set shows up and ruins everything.
Set rips out Horus's eyes. It’s a literal and metaphorical blinding.
Horus spends most of the movie being a bit of a jerk to Bek, the human who helps him. Their dynamic is the engine of the film. While Horus is a god, he’s remarkably vulnerable. He can’t transform into his "battle form"—that sleek, gold-plated armor—without his eyes. It’s a classic "power comes from within" trope, but it’s played out with a lot of shiny pixels. The movie tries to ground him by making him lose his "godhood," forcing him to rely on a puny mortal. It’s sort of a buddy-cop movie, if one cop was an exiled deity and the other was a teenager obsessed with his girlfriend.
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Why Set Was the Standout Villain
Gerard Butler as Set is... a choice. He doesn't even try for an accent. He’s just Leonidas from 300 but with more eyeliner and a darker tan. But honestly? It works for this specific movie. Set is the God of the Desert, storms, and chaos. He represents the destructive side of nature. Butler plays him with this frantic, desperate hunger for validation.
Set’s motivation is actually pretty relatable in a messed-up way. He felt unloved by his father, Ra. He felt overshadowed by his brother, Osiris. So, he decides to kill everyone and rewrite the rules of the afterlife. In the film, the afterlife (the Duat) used to be a place where you were judged by your heart’s goodness. Set changes it so you have to pay your way in with gold. It’s a cynical, corporate takeover of Heaven.
Set’s character design is where the movie gets truly wild. He literally harvests "upgrades" from other gods. He takes the brain from Thoth, the heart from Osiris, and the wings from Nephthys. He’s basically building a PC, but the parts are his relatives. By the final act, he looks like a gold-leafed Transformer. It’s over the top, but it fits the film's "more is more" philosophy.
The Supporting Cast: From Wisdom to Literal Stars
The Gods of Egypt movie characters list isn't just the two leads. You’ve got some heavy hitters in the background.
- Thoth (Chadwick Boseman): Before he was Black Panther, Boseman played the God of Wisdom. He’s the funniest part of the movie. He’s so smart that he’s bored by everyone else. He creates hundreds of clones of himself just so he has someone intelligent to talk to. Boseman plays him with this eccentric, high-pitched arrogance that is just delightful.
- Ra (Geoffrey Rush): This is where the movie goes full sci-fi. Ra lives on a space station. Seriously. He spends his days pulling the sun across the sky and fighting a giant space-worm called Apophis. Geoffrey Rush looks like he’s having the time of his life wearing a flaming bathrobe and fighting a cloud of darkness with a spear.
- Hathor (Elodie Yung): The Goddess of Love. She’s probably the most complex character. She was the Mistress of the West (meaning she spent time in the underworld) but escaped. She’s caught between her love for Horus and her survival instincts. Her "power" is basically being so charming that people do what she says, but the movie gives her a bit more agency than just being a love interest.
Then there is Bek, played by Brenton Thwaites. He’s the human POV. His entire motivation is saving his girlfriend, Zaya (Courtney Eaton), from the land of the dead. He doesn't care about kings or crowns or cosmic worms. He just wants his girl back. It’s a simple, grounding element in a movie where the sun is literally a glowing ball being dragged by a boat in low Earth orbit.
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The Controversy That Overshadowed the Characters
We can't talk about these characters without mentioning the casting. It was a mess.
Lionsgate and Alex Proyas actually had to issue apologies before the movie even came out. Why? Because a movie set in ancient Egypt featured a cast that was almost entirely white. It felt like a throwback to the 1950s "sword and sandal" epics, and in 2016, audiences weren't having it. This backlash significantly hurt the movie's reputation. It’s hard to appreciate the character arcs when the visual representation feels so disconnected from the actual history and geography of the setting.
If you watch it today, that tension is still there. You have to view it through the lens of "high fantasy" rather than anything resembling history. It’s more Star Wars than The Ten Commandments.
Why These Versions of the Gods Matter
These aren't the gods from your history textbook. The movie leans heavily into the idea of "Biopunk" mythology. The gods have liquid gold for blood. Their bodies are mechanically superior. When they transform, it looks like liquid metal.
This interpretation of the Gods of Egypt movie characters was meant to show them as a different species entirely. They are taller, stronger, and literally shine. It’s a literalist take on the "divine right of kings." In this world, the gods are objectively "better" than humans, which makes Bek’s role as the hero even more important. He proves that human cleverness and heart can outmatch divine power and gold.
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Set’s descent into madness is a great example of this. He starts as a conqueror and ends as a monster. He loses his "humanity" (even though he's a god) as he grafts more pieces of others onto himself. By the end, he’s just a machine of ego.
Moving Past the CGI
If you’re looking to dive deeper into these characters or the world they inhabit, don't just stop at the 2016 film. The movie is a doorway.
To really get what the film was trying to do, you should look at the original myths. The real "Contendings of Horus and Set" is a much weirder, much more prolonged story than a two-hour action flick. In the original myths, the battles lasted decades. There were court cases. There were bizarre competitions involving lettuce (look it up, it’s wild).
The movie simplifies all of that into a quest for a pair of eyes, but the core theme remains: the struggle between order (Ma'at) and chaos (Isfet). Horus represents the rightful order. Set represents the necessary but dangerous chaos.
Next Steps for the Curious
If you actually enjoyed the vibe of the Gods of Egypt movie characters, your next move should be exploring the "Mythic Fiction" genre. Check out American Gods by Neil Gaiman for a much grittier take on how ancient deities would survive in the modern world. If you want more of the "gold and gears" aesthetic, look into the concept of "Sandstorm Punk" or "Silkpunk" art on platforms like ArtStation.
For those who want to see these characters in a different light, the Assassin's Creed: Origins game provides a much more historically grounded (yet still mythological) version of ancient Egypt that might scratch the itch the movie left behind. Finally, if you're interested in the actual history, the "History of Egypt Podcast" by Dominic Perry covers the real-life inspirations for these characters with incredible detail, showing that the real Pharaohs were often just as dramatic as their cinematic counterparts.